System and method for identification, grouping and sizing of embedded flaws in rotor components using ultrasonic inspection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9835596-B2
Application number	US-201414146751-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 3, 2014
Priority date	Jan 17, 2013
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

A method and software system for flaw identification, grouping and sizing for fatigue life assessment for rotors used in turbines and generators. The method includes providing ultrasonic data of a plurality of rotor slices and providing volume reconstruction of the ultrasonic data. The method also includes providing in-slice identification, grouping and sizing of flaw indications in the rotor based on the volume reconstruction. Further, the method includes providing inter-slice identification, grouping and sizing of the flaw indications based on the in-slice flaw indications and providing flaw location and size information. The method can be used in both phased-array and A-scan inspections.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for ultrasonic inspection of a rotor, comprising:
providing ultrasonic data, from at least one ultrasound probe of a plurality of rotor slices to a non-destructive examination processor;
in the non-destructive examination processor:
providing volume reconstruction of the ultrasonic data;
providing in-slice identification, grouping and sizing of flaw indications in the rotor based on the volume reconstruction by:
identifying ultrasound echo intensities from ultrasound data representing an ultrasonic scanning of a slice;
identifying hit points having identified ultrasound echo intensities within the ultrasound data that exceed a pre-defined threshold;
grouping hit points based on pixel connectivity of each of the hit points;
identifying in-slice flaw indicators based on the hit point grouping;

providing inter-slice identification, grouping and sizing of flaw indications based on the in-slice flaw indicators by:
identifying hit points having identified ultrasound echo intensities within ultrasound data from a plurality of slices that exceed a pre-defined threshold;
grouping hit points based on voxel connectivity of each of the hit points;
identifying flaw indicators based on the hit point grouping; and

providing flaw location and size information based on the flaw indicators to a downstream process.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the ultrasonic data is obtained via a phased array ultrasound probe.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a predefined threshold is used to locate data points in the volume reconstruction.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein portions of the volume reconstruction having an intensity greater than the predefined threshold are each identified as hit points.

5. The method according to claim 3 , further including identifying regions of interest in the volume reconstruction.

6. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the predefined threshold is approximately 40%.

7. A method for ultrasonic inspection of a rotor, comprising:
scanning slices of a rotor to provide ultrasonic data, wherein the slices are perpendicular to a rotor axis and storing the ultrasonic data in a digital file;
in a non-destructive examination processor:
receiving the digital file containing the ultrasonic data;
providing volume reconstruction of the ultrasonic data;
providing in-slice identification, grouping and sizing of flaw indications in the rotor based on the volume reconstruction by:
identifying ultrasound echo intensities from ultrasound data representing an ultrasonic scanning of a slice;
identifying hit points having identified ultrasound echo intensities within the ultrasound data that exceed a pre-defined threshold;
grouping hit points based on pixel connectivity of each of the hit points;

identifying in-slice flaw indicators based on the hit point grouping;
providing inter-slice identification, grouping and sizing of flaw indications based on the in-slice flaw indicators by:
identifying hit points having identified ultrasound echo intensities within ultrasound data from a plurality of slices that exceed a pre-defined threshold;
grouping hit points based on voxel connectivity of each of the hit points;

identifying flaw indicators based on the hit point grouping; and
providing flaw location and size information based on the identified flaw indicators to a downstream process.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein a predefined threshold is used to locate data points in the volume reconstruction.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein portions of the volume reconstruction having an intensity greater than the predefined threshold are each identified as hit points.

10. A computer readable medium encoded with computer executable instructions for performing a method for ultrasonic inspection of a rotor, the computer executable instructions defining steps that when performed by a non-destructive examination processor, cause the non-destructive examination processor to perform steps comprising:
providing ultrasonic data of a plurality of rotor slices;
providing volume reconstruction of the ultrasonic data;
providing in-slice identification, grouping and sizing of flaw indications in the rotor based on the volume reconstruction by:
identifying ultrasound echo intensities from ultrasound data in a data file representing an ultrasonic scanning of a slice;
identifying hit points having identified ultrasound echo intensities within the ultrasound data that exceed a pre-defined threshold;
grouping hit points based on pixel connectivity of each of the hit points;

identifying in-slice flaw indicators based on the hit point grouping;
providing inter-slice identification, grouping and sizing of flaw indications based on the in-slice flaw indicators by:
identifying hit points having identified ultrasound echo intensities within ultrasound data from a plurality of slices that exceed a pre-defined threshold;
grouping hit points based on voxel connectivity of each of the hit points;

identifying flaw indicators based on the hit point grouping; and
providing flaw location and size information based on the identified flaw indicators to a downstream process.

Assignees

• Guan Xuefei
• Zhang Jingdan
• Zhou Shaohua Kevin
• Rasselkorde El Mahjoub
• Abbasi Waheed A
• Radke Steve H
• Lee Chin-Sheng
• Lewis Ashley L
• Siemens Energy Inc

Inventors

• Guan Xuefei
• Zhang Jingdan
• Zhou Shaohua Kevin
• Rasselkorde El Mahjoub
• Abbasi Waheed A
• Radke Steve H
• Lee Chin-Sheng
• Lewis Ashley L

Classifications

• G01N2291/2693

  Rotor or turbine parts · CPC title

• G01N29/4445 Primary

  Classification of defects · CPC title

• G06T17/00

  Three-dimensional [3D] modelling for computer graphics · CPC title

• G01N29/069 Primary

  Defect imaging, localisation and sizing using, e.g. time of flight diffraction [TOFD], synthetic aperture focusing technique [SAFT], Amplituden-Laufzeit-Ortskurven [ALOK] technique · CPC title